Gattorno Bio
Art By Antonio Gattorno
About
Gattorno Biography Havana, Cuba 1904 - Acushnet, MA. 1980 Antonio Gattorno was the first Cuban artist of his generation to achieve an international reputation as a universal contemporary that transcended his ethnicity. He is one of the founders of Cuba's Modernist Movement, yet he is also one of the most underrated major painters of the 20th Century. Gattorno was born in Havana, Cuba on March 15, 1904. In 1919, his third year as a painting student at the Academy of San Alejandro in Havana, he won a five-year scholarship to study in Europe. He remained there for seven years, traveling throughout Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Germany. He became friends and worked with Felice Carena, Georges Rouault and Jules Pascin. He shared studios in Paris, France and in Florence, Italy with the Cuban sculptor Juan Jose Sicre. When Gattorno returned to Cuba in 1927, he had developed a personal esthetic influenced by sources as diverse as Mannerism, Social Realism and the modern primitivism of Gauguin. During the next decade he constantly refined his plastic technique while exploring traditional Cuban themes in a non-traditional manner. Gattorno's work from this era (1927 1939) became the archetype of Cuban Modern Primitivism and set the standard for the generation of Cuban painters known as the Vanguardia-a group that includes Wifredo Lam, Victor Manuel and Amelia Pelaez. Gattorno's work during the years 1927 through 1939 played an important part in the development of a national identity in Cuban painting, which was fundamental to the artistic and political ideals espoused by the Vanguardia artists. His images of the Cuban guajiros convey the power of simple human dignity set against a background of poverty, which can also be found in the works of Daumier or Corot. He served as Art Instructor at Academia de San Alejandro. He executed commissioned murals in public buildings in Havana, (one at the Havana City Hall), also in private homes. In conjunction with work in Fine Arts he also did extensive theatrical decor throughout Cuba. His monograph, written and published by Ernest Hemingway in April 1935, (with additional critical commentary by John Dos Passos, Ramon Guirao, Alejo Carpentier and E. Aviles Ramirez), contains reproductions of 36 works in several media - oil, watercolor, pen and ink, and pencil. "Esquire Magazine", May 1936, has a reprint of the Hemingway text as well as comments by author John Dos Passos about Gattorno with 8 full-color reproductions of Gattorno paintings not included in the original book version by Hemingway. Hemingway sponsored Gattorno's first solo exhibition in the United States at the Georgette Passedoit Gallery, New York City, January 12 through February 2, 1936. This led to a commission from the Bacardi Company to paint a mural in their headquarters on the 35th floor of The Empire State Building in 1937. It was completed in February 1938. Gattorno married Isabel do Carmo Moura Cabral on September